Focus on judicial delays

Afzal Haider was acquitted of all charges by a court in 2003. It still took him until the third week of January 2005 to get out of prison after spending more than 17 years of his life there. He had never been convicted. He was detained for two years after his acquittal because the police simply hadn't delivered his release order to the prison authorities. "Without getting much into the details of the case against him, this single incident reflects the operational flaws inherent in the country's judicial system," said Syed Liaquat Banori, head of a prisoners rights body, the Society for the Protection of Human Rights and Prisoners' Aid (SHARP). ROTTING ON REMAND The issue of prisoners on remand - in custody but awaiting trial - has long been a source of great concern for rights' activists. According to an Interior Ministry report released in June 2004, 73 prisons in the country held more than 80,000 prisoners against a permitted capacity of 35,365. Only about 25,000 - less than a third - of them were convicted and 55,949 prisoners were on remand or 'under-trial', said the report. "Many of the under-trial prisoners had been in prison for periods longer than the term they would have served, had they been convicted," Banori said. "Hundreds of men and women are languishing in our jails for lack of legal aid, bail money, complicated legal procedures and police non-cooperation in facilitating court hearings and providing bail and release orders promptly," he added. Over 17,000 cases remained pending before the apex court (Pakistan's supreme court) of the country on 1 January 2003, according to the annual report of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP) released in October 2004. While more than four million cases were pending in all the high courts subordinate to them by the same date, said the LJCP report. JUSTICE PAINFULLY SLOW Dispensation of justice in Pakistan has remained flawed, delayed and in some cases, non-existent, according to legal experts. Some blame the lack of resources and the capacity of the system to hear cases, while others say it is a problem that continues because of a lack of political will. The government of Pakistan says it is taking the issue seriously, having established a large number of commissions and committees on judicial reform since 1956. "Only a few of the recommendations of the bodies have been implemented. And a substantive number concerning day-to-day dispensation of justice, such as the ones related to court facilities, production of witnesses, improvements in criminal investigation and prosecution, cutting down delays and prison reforms - to name few, are pending despite repeated articulation," Mohsin Babbar working at an Islamabad-based policy advocacy body, the Sustainable Development and Policy Institute (SDPI), told IRIN. CALLS FOR REFORM The revamping of police prosecution services is critically important for criminal cases, according to rights activists, along with an independent complaints procedure. "A permanent district commission should be set up at each district headquarters to monitor the registration of First Information Reports (FIRs), police harassment and hear citizens' complaints," recommended an SDPI report early last year. In recent years, government has started to introduce statutory reforms to support improvements in the legal rights of citizens. An Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded project, 'Access to Justice', was started in 1999. The aim is to computerise court data in order to deal with the massive backlog of cases and delays throughout the system. As a start, some sixty computers have been installed on a pilot basis to support registry functions and speed up administration across the country. GOVERNMENT RESPONSE Pakistan's Law Ministry has recently launched a draft bill to amend criminal law legislation to provide faster justice to the people. It is soon to be tabled in the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly. "The government intends to address the court delays on a long-term and short-term basis. We have brought amendments aimed at curtailing the undue discretionary powers of police and to remove procedural impediments to facilitate speedy justice to citizens," said the federal minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights, Muhammad Wasi Zafar, two weeks ago when he announced the contents of the bill. The law minister said the situation with regard to civil cases was even worse. "It takes years to conclude a case and sometimes, the remedy gets diluted. In this regard certain amendments to civil laws are being made," he added. "As a first step, amendments are being proposed for honour killings [murder to preserve family honour] Hudood Laws and Blasphemy Law and are further proposing amendments in the century old Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, the Pakistan Penal Code and several other codes," Zafar said. However, legal experts say much remains to be done to reduce the delays in the administration of justice. It is these delays which frequently compel people to turn to the traditional parallel judicial systems of the 'jirga' under which an unelected, unaccountable, conservative assembly of tribal elders passed judgement on the case often without evidence, witnesses or due process, activists say. The administration of justice needs to be radically improved to prevent more cases like that of Haider, maintained Banori. Law student Haider was 23 when he was first arrested. The charges against him were serious ranging from dacoity (armed robbery) and possession of explosives and ammunition, to murder. He says all the charges were made up at the behest of a disgruntled police officer. Haider is now a 41-year-old man and has only recently been set free. What compensation will he receive for his lost youth and family life, ask rights activists.